Meeting Vedran's Mom

Vedran smiled. "Oh, no, she'll probably have a pretty good idea. She won't mind the time with Macen, though the tea might get cold."

"I can handle that," Aleyn said, and tilted Vedran's head up for a kiss.

A little while later, the sounds of the maid bringing up tea to the playroom across the hall distracted them for a moment, but only a moment.

Eventually, however, Aleyn drew back, breathless. "Either we somehow pull ourselves apart, or I say screw it, we're spending the night," he said, grinning.

Vedran laughed, pulling back as well, and feeling much more like himself. "Its not even dinner yet, I think we can manage to fit in a little more social time. We can give it a few minutes, but the tea is probably still warm, even."

He stood, up straightening his clothes, then reached over and ran his fingers through Aleyn's hair.

Aleyn smiled, letting Vedran fix his hair. "Are we presentable now?" he asked lightly.

"Hmm, more or less." He bent down to give him another gentle kiss, then helped him to his feet. "There, now we're ready."


The door to the playroom had been left slightly ajar, and the sounds inside had quieted down some. Vedran gave a quiet tap before pushing it open, to find his mother in the big rocking chair, singing quietly to the elf child curled up in her lap, tranced out. She smiled when the boys came in.

"He's pretty out - I think the trip up the hill must have tired him out. Did he walk much?" She waved at the tea tray, complete with some finger sandwiches and cookies, for them to help themselves.


"About half of the way out of Undertow, in spurts." Vedran offered a cup of tea to Aleyn before pouring one for himself, and settled himself on the padded bench beside the toybox.

"Well he's doing better than you then - you hated walking anywhere until you were over two." She glanced over at Aleyn with a twinkle in her eye. "Not a great start to the embarrassing stories, but I'm just getting warmed up, I promise!"

Aleyn chuckled, taking the cup of tea and helping himself to one of the delicate little sandwiches as well before sitting down beside Vedran. "I've heard he was a perfectly delightful and well-behaved child... according to him, anyway. Maybe there's not that much to tell?" His playful tone suggested he didn't believe that for a moment.

"Oh of course he was... mostly." She shot her son a fond look before smirking at Aleyn. "Of course, the one you saw downstairs isn't my *first* piano..."

Vedran sighed and winced. "Okay, so, maybe I went through a phase where I wanted to be an artificers. Come on you don't think a magical piano would be cool?"

Vinalia shook her head. "Despite his father's instruction, let me tell you that at ten, his ideas of what was needed for ritual enchantments was very.... creative."

Aleyn laughed, but tried to keep it quiet to avoid disturbing Macen's rest. "It sounds like a good idea in theory, anyway. Too bad the execution didn't work out."

"No, and I was sufficiently dissuaded from further unsupervised experimentation, too."

"That was really the biggest thing, most of the rest of it was typical boys will be boys - breaking the occasional vase, digging up things in the garden. Planting things too, goodness!" She shook her head at Vedran. "Do you remember those seeds you stole from your father? I thought those vines were going to take over the house!"

He sighed again.

"I had to get Jesseryn to come and get rid of them. He was... displeased."

"I can only imagine," Aleyn said, giving Vedran a sidelong glance. "So mostly he was pretty good, then? What sorts of things did he like to do when he was a kid, other than attempted rituals? I've heard he studied music with you - did you have to fight to get him to practice, or did it come naturally to him?"

"Oh, no that was easy. I always used to sing and play for him when he was little - even before he was born, really, and it just grew from there. He wanted to do it because I did - no fighting at all. Except when he was older and preferred playing to practicing."

"What's the difference? I suppose playing is probably more fun?" Aleyn said, not really knowing much about formal musical training. "I hear him practicing sometimes now, anyway - mostly when he thinks I'm not listening," he added with a little smile for Vedran.

She grinned. "Oh I meant playing, like playing outside in the garden or concocting artificer rituals. I'm glad to hear he does still practice some though!"

"I think I was trying to enchant the piano so that it would practice *for* me, and I could spend more time reading adventurer stories. Anyway, I try to practice a little everyday when things aren't too crazy... Mostly it is just easier to concentrate if I don't think anyone is listening." He smiles back at Aleyn a little apologetically.

"Oh, heh," Aleyn said, blushing a little. "I just assumed playing meant, like, playing music. Shows what I know." He took a bite of sandwich, which meant the little snack was basically gone, so he finished it off. "I do like listening to you, though, so I hope it's not too distracting," he said to Vedran shyly.

"Oh, I should just play for you sometime. Music I mean." He smiled teasingly, but his mother gave him an almost affronted look.

"What? You haven't played for him? Vedran!" She turned to Aleyn. "How long have you two been together?"

"Oh, uh... it depends what you count as 'together' I guess," Aleyn said, blushing even more. He glanced over at Vedran. "A couple months I guess? But I was away for part of that."

Vedran sighed. "Most of it really."

But Vinalia shook her head. "No excuse! But - you are one of the Thunderbolts right? You have at least heard him play, even if he hasn't played for you? Yet."

"Oh, yes, I've heard him plenty of times, playing to entertain people in the evenings after we make camp, or to pass the time while we travel, things like that... But then it's for everyone, and that's fine, I like it too, but it's not really..." Aleyn shrugged, trailing off. "...personal," he ended, not sure what else to say.

Vedran shifted, feeling uncomfortably exposed, but his mother gave them both an apologetic look and continued before he had to respond.

"As long as Aleyn has heard you play a little, I think we can both forgive you for now, dear. I suppose it has been a while since you've given a private performance - I don't mean to pressure you."

She turned to Aleyn instead. "But if you were away so long, were you with the group who got trapped on another plane? What was that like?"

Aleyn was relieved to have the topic shift away from Vedran's private performances for him, or lack thereof. "It was pretty strange," he told Vinalia. "I mean, awful in some ways - being stuck, not being able to tell anyone that we were okay or where we were... oh, and the food was mostly terrible, apart from the cakebees. But there were some amazing parts too. If you ever want to see rivers that flow through the sky, or frozen fire, I can recommend the Elemental Chaos for your next vacation."

She smiled. "Oh that does sound amazing! What was your favourite part then? I know it really must have been awful not to know how you'd be getting back home, but something that wondrous must have been striking!"

Aleyn considered for a moment, fiddling with the delicate teacup and saucer. "Well, there was one time when we had to go underwater to retrieve something, and we were able to breathe and move around normally, more or less... sort of floating, not swimming - it's hard to explain. But even just exploring the underwater buildings was pretty interesting - there were things down there, like Roscoe found this cyclops skull that was neat, and some old jewelry, and...well, it was a lot of fun in some ways. I mean, until some guys tried to kill us, and there was that giant snake that tried to eat us. But before that, it was amazing."

Vinalia drew a few more anecdotes out of him, plying both of the men with more sandwiches before turning to Vedran.

"Vedran, do you mind taking him from me? My arms are falling asleep. Just take him to his room, maybe?"

"Of course."

Transferring a trancing baby was always a dangerous prospect though, and they didn't quite manage it without inciting some over-tired cranking. Vedran smiled down at him a little resignedly, excusing himself from the room while his mother tried to rub feeling back into her arms.

"Sorry for the interruption Aleyn. I try to have as much time with him as I can, but my poor arms do have their limits!"

"Oh, no, that's fine," Aleyn said, smiling ruefully. "I mean, I know how it is with kids. Macen's a sweet little guy, even when he's kind of fussy. I'm sorry for intruding on your time with your family, it was very nice of you to welcome me in anyway."

She smiled more broadly, settling back into his chair. "Oh, I trust my son. He has excellent taste in the people he chooses to surround himself with, so how could I not welcome you? I take it as a sign that things are maybe getting a little better for him, hmm?"